


New Days, Old Nights

by aintweproudriff



Series: Race, Spot, Albert, and Elmer [6]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Attempted Sexual Assault, M/M, Multi, these four are so in love theyd die for each other in a heartbeat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-18
Updated: 2017-10-18
Packaged: 2019-01-18 22:35:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12397635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aintweproudriff/pseuds/aintweproudriff
Summary: Elmer starts to hang out with a classmate who is more than friendly to him, but less than friendly to his boyfriends.





	New Days, Old Nights

**Author's Note:**

> I hate writing sad things.

Giggles floated down the hallway, and landed in the bedroom of three boys. Well, the bedroom of four boys. Just because one of them was currently in the other room, spending time with some admittedly gorgeous psychology major didn’t mean that he was being kicked out of the bedroom. It just meant that, when they heard the giggles, three boys looked at each other with disappointment.  
The giggles themselves were good, obviously. Anytime Elmer giggled, it made Spot, Race, and Albert smile. The sound was high-pitched, often muffled by a hand over Elmer’s mouth. The three of them could easily see his face in their minds’ eyes. His eyes scrunched up, showing laugh lines that had formed over years. A dimple by his mouth was often covered by self-conscious fingers, but according to his boyfriends, it never should have been hidden.  
No, they didn’t mind the giggles. But they did wish the giggles weren’t accompanied by self-aggrandizing laughter, the kind that sounded like someone was saying, “aren’t I funny? And aren’t I attractive and smart?”

-

All of them clearly remembered the day that “fucking Kyle” had waltzed into their lives. Of course, they never called him “fucking Kyle” to his face or to Elmer’s. But Spot, Race, and Albert all agreed that the day Kyle and Elmer had been assigned to work together on a project for their psych class was the worst day of their relationship to date. Unless they were thinking about every day that the two of them spent time together afterwards; in that case, each of those days were the worst. 

The first day Kyle had come into Spot and Elmer’s dorm room, Spot hadn’t thought much of it. After all, he had classmates over all the time to work on projects or homework. Kyle and Elmer sat on the couch, discussing strategies for doing who-knows-what, and Spot had politely put in his earbuds and tuned out, watching some horrible, mindless show on Netflix. 

The next time Kyle had come over was much the same, save for the fact that Albert and Race were also there. While the three of them huddled together on Spot’s bed, Elmer and Kyle spread out their work on the couch. It was so spread out, in fact, that Kyle forgot a few of his pens and had to come back to the dorm room later to pick them up. 

When he showed up, Elmer was pressed against Race, despite his head resting on Albert’s shoulder. The four of them heard a knock at the door, and it scared Elmer out of his serendipity. Spot laughed, then pressed a kiss to Elmer’s forehead and walked to the door. 

“Uh, oh, hey,” Kyle said when Spot opened the door. He took a hissing breath in and asked, “You’re, uh, Race, right?”

Spot chuckled, but never once broke the eye contact with Kyle, despite Spot being at least a foot shorter than Kyle. “No, but good try. I’m Spot. What’s up?”

“I left some stuff here, and I wanted to pop in and grab it,” Kyle let himself in, and Spot backed up quickly, opening the door wider for him. 

“Hey Kyle!” Elmer called from the bed. 

“Oh, Elmer, I didn’t think you were home. How are you doing, man?” Kyle stepped over to the couch, and looked for his pens without looking up at Elmer. 

“I’m okay. Hey,” Elmer shook his head. “Kinda rude of me not to introduce you to my boyfriends, huh? I talk about them a lot, but you didn’t actually know who was who. This is Spot, who you just met. And Albert’s the redhead, and Race is the other one.” Elmer smiled at each of them as he introduced them, but none of them could quite find it in them to smile back. They did, however, shake Kyle’s hand politely. It was the least they could do. 

“Hey, it’s great to meet you guys,” Kyle said, “but I shouldn’t overstay my welcome. I’ll get going, I think and I’ll see you-”

“No, Kyle,” Elmer contradicted him. “You’re always welcome. Actually, we’ve just been watching tv and stuff, you should hang out with us for a while.” 

Spot, Race, and Albert exchanged a look, but thankfully Kyle seemed to have the same idea they did. 

“Nah, I should get going. You know, I’ve got some work to do and I’m getting up early tomorrow morning. So I’ll uh,” he put his hand on the doorknob, “see you later, yeah El?”

“Yeah, okay.”

The door closed behind Kyle, and the four of them went back to whatever trash tv they had been watching. But something was quieter between them; the snarky remarks about the show, the closeness, seemed to have disappeared. 

-

They had been right. Sometimes, though, being right is worse than being wrong. 

-

Spot, Race, and Albert, after a fast and honestly pointless trip to the grocery store, walked home carrying bags containing poptarts, cereal, oreos, and peanut butter. It wasn’t like they didn’t want Elmer to come, although they knew that he probably would have made them get some healthier food. Truly, it was the opposite; they had asked Elmer to come, but he had plans with-

“God, fuckin’ Kyle, right?” Spot had whispered in the middle of the grocery store, and the other two would nod. 

“I’m kinda over it, honestly,” Race had shoved a box of the sugariest cereal he could find into the basket. Albert had nodded again, throwing a resigned arm around Race’s shoulders and guiding him away. 

-

They walked up to the door of Spot and Elmer’s dorm room, intending to deposit the food before going to Race and Albert’s room to leave their boyfriend alone for a while. Spot passed the bag he was carrying to Albert, turning the key in the doorknob to let the three of them in. 

The lights in the dorm room were dark, with only the lamp by the couch providing any illumination on the scene that awaited them. Elmer laid on his back on the couch, pushing himself so far down that he almost blended into the leather cushions. Kyle was on top of him, his mouth reaching down to raid Elmer’s mouth. One of Kyle’s hands was detaining Elmer’s hands down, the other was tearing at Elmer’s shirt.  
There wasn’t enough time to gasp, no time to get a grip on the situation. The door slammed loudly behind them, a result of Race angrily making their presence known. At the moment the bang of the door sounded, Spot took a running start and moved as fast as he could towards Kyle, effectively launching himself over the back of the couch. Kyle’s shirt was halfway off, and Spot pulled it over his head and eyes before using the full force of his body weight to pin Kyle to the ground. 

Albert grabbed Spot and pulled him away before either boy could land a punch, both to save his boyfriend and Kyle from harm, but also to make sure that Spot wasn’t caught beating up on Kyle by the RA. 

Race was holding Elmer’s head against his chest, and Elmer bit his lip to keep from crying too loudly. 

“Get the fuck out,” Spot hissed, and Kyle stood up straighter as if challenging Spot, “if I see you again, anywhere near Elmer, I will not be kind. And Albert will not be there.”

Kyle left, spouting off as many swear words as he could think of. He slammed the door behind him, as loudly as he could, but the boys in the dorm room weren’t paying attention. 

“Elmer, sweetheart,” Albert took Elmer’s hand, “are you hurt?”

Elmer shook his head, removing himself from Race’s hug. “It wasn’t- it wasn’t my fault. I wouldn’t ever try to,” he hiccuped, all hopes of not crying long abandoned, “cheat on you guys or to not be-”

“We know,” Spot’s voice was softer now, as he sank down to his knees to look at his boyfriends on the couch. “We believe you.”

“El, if you’re not hurt, and you’re not, right?” Race clarified, subtly checking his boyfriend. “Then what do you need?”

Elmer let himself fall backwards into Race. “I wanna deal with this in the mornin’. I’ll put it off.”

“That’s smart,” Albert breathed, sitting back on the couch. “We can talk about it later. Do you wanna sleep now or…?”

Shaking his head, Elmer motioned for Spot to come sit on the couch. “No, I think I’ll just spend time with you guys. Until we fall asleep, at least.”

Spot climbed up to join the rest of them, and they did spend time together. They talked about nothing, until they fell asleep, just before the sun rose on a new day. 

-

Here is what they learned when the sun came up:  
New days can be good. New days are a chance to start over, to understand what happened in the night. New days can be challenging, daunting, and terrifying. Because on a new day, you have to remember the night, and take the night with you as you continue moving. But a new day, with all of its light, is always easier to face when you don’t have to face it alone.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked reading this! Or hated it, whichever. Leave a comment or kudo to tell me what you thought,=!


End file.
